


Frozen

by down



Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 03:41:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/down/pseuds/down
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clef is staying with Umi, in Tokyo. Only he doesn’t know what to make of the cold, or of Umi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frozen

oOo

Clef lay still under the strangely thick, puffed-up bedcover Umi’s family had provided for him, attempting to sleep, curled in on himself.

 Six hours on earth, and his mind was spinning so fast that he felt exhausted and as though he would never sleep again. More, when Umi had told him it was winter here, he had thought he understood; it would be colder than he was used to, particularly outside. But however well he had understood the words, he hadn’t known what this would feel like. His hands were chilled to the point of feeling damp, though he knew that was untrue. His feet were worse.

 Umi’s mother had made certain he knew where to find extra blankets, but there were already three more on the bed than there had been on Umi’s, when he stood in the doorway to her room. (He had not crossed the threshold. Their relationship was still unspoken, hovering on the edge of a slide into something intimate and irrevocable; she had offered up her home, when Ferio and Lantis between them extracted a promise from him to take a holiday far enough from the Castle that he would actually rest. His curiosity about this Tokyo of the Knights’s had got the better of him, and he had agreed – though it had taken a series of bizarre experiments to ensure he would survive the experience. Tokyo was not built to support mages who carried more than seven centuries with them.)

 (Umi’s parents had travelled to Cephiro, three times, since the Knights had told their families the truth. In the year since they had known, they had come to accept this strangeness in their daughter’s life. Clef was uncertain what they thought of his presence in their home – he had no doubt Umi could have persuaded them to invite him in spite of their own feelings – but they had made him welcome, and that made him feel all the more awkward. As if he was here under a false pretence, though in fact he and Umi were wrapped in ambiguity instead. He certainly did not want to be blundering about the house at night, probably disturbing their own rest.)

 And moving to find another cover for the bed would have meant exposing himself to the chill of the air; better to stay where he was. Only an ache was lingering in his limbs, his hands, and stealing the hope of sleep from him, though he badly needed it.

 He shifted, and winced as the covers came loose and let a draft play over the back of his neck. This was ridiculous. The house was a perfectly reasonable temperature, it just was not what he was used to.

 …Perhaps he could put on the dressing gown he had been leant.  The extra layer might help, though it would certainly do little to help his feet warm up…

 As he lay there pondering this, there came a soft noise from outside – he twisted his head to look at the door without dislodging the bedcovers, and was nearly blinded by the shaft of light which flooded in as it opened a crack.

 Umi slipped inside, padding along on slippered feet, and shut the door behind herself. Blinking hard, his vision cleared enough to see her nod, silhouetted in the dimness; and then she was sighing loudly enough he heard it, and walking across.

 His heartrate kicked up, a rush of adrenaline making the chill unimportant – he pushed up on one elbow, turning towards her. “Umi-“ he said, softly, a warning in his voice. “I don’t think-“

 “Hush, idiot.” Umi kicked her shoes off – he heard them thump down on the floor – and reached out to push gently on his shoulder until he was laying against the mattress again – facing away from her.

 “What-“

 The bed dipped, as she pulled the covers back and climbed in behind him. He tried to turn, but again that hand rested on his shoulder, and then Umi was curling against his back, one arm wrapping about his waist. “Go to sleep.” Her hand found his, and long warm fingers curled over his own.

 He lay, bewildered, as she tucked her head down against the curve of his neck and just… relaxed. “I knew you wouldn’t go find a blanket,” he heard her murmur, sounding wry. “Clef, just… go to sleep. Okay?”

 Frozen in place by uncertainty more than the cold, now, he waited for… something. What, he didn’t know. But Umi seemed content to just drift to sleep again, and the warmth from her body was trapped under the covers, seeping into him and easing the tension which had been keeping him awake. Slowly he relaxed, and as his hands uncurled from their grip on the bedlinen their fingers tangled together. “Sleep.” Umi murmured, a third time, her voice muffled against the pyjamas he wore.

 He did.

 oOo

 Clef woke to the feeling he was being watched. He blinked his eyes open, and shifted a little; Umi muttered something against his spine, and her hand tightened where it was gripping the cloth over his waist. Morning light filled the room, barely contained by the thin curtains; it was warm to the point of being uncomfortable under the covers despite the extra blankets having twisted aside and fallen to the floor in a tangle during the night, leaving only the puffed-up duvet behind.

 The door creaked, and he looked up. Umi’s mother stood in the opening, her hand on the door, and his mind went entirely blank as he stared at her. This must look like – it wasn’t what – but –

 His silence went on far too long, and he still could think of nothing to say, to either explain or excuse her daughter’s presence in his bed. But before he could drag himself together, she smiled, and the expression was one he had seen echoed in Umi’s face before – it was real.

 “We are going out for the morning,” she said, quietly; “there is breakfast waiting, when you are ready for it. Tell Umi she can use the last of the miso, if she wants, there is more in the back cupboard.”

 “I… yes.” Clef stared some more. “That is, I will tell her. …Thank you?”

 “She always sleeps in on Saturdays. Wake her up if you want to, she won’t mind, now it’s gone ten o’clock.” Umi’s mother smiled again, as she gave him this advice, and then she was pulling the door closed again – quietly.

 Clef stayed precisely where he was as he listened to the front door opening, and closing again. He sank back down against the pillows; Umi curled closer, her legs tangled with his, and he had no idea what to think about any of this.

 So he gave up trying, and let his eyes shut again, one hand resting over Umi’s. He would worry later.

 For now, he was warm, and comfortable. If no one wanted him to move, he might just as well stay where he was.

 oOo


End file.
